Midoriya woke up and wasted no time getting ready for another day at U.A. The second and third year sports festival was about to begin, and that was going to take up most of the first few hours, so he quickly got dressed on his school uniform and left.
Once he reached the living room, however, he saw something interesting: Hatsume sleeping on the couch, snoring like a wild animal. Even with the not-so-pleasant smile, Midoriya couldn't help but smile.
Inko wasn't around to wake her up, though, so he grabbed the control remote and turned on the TV.
"In other news, the most prestigious hero school in Japan, UA, is currently on lockdown while the authorities investigate the school for any sign of villainous insiders."
Midoriya dropped the remote, which hit the ground loudly enough to wake up Hatsume. "Good morning, Izuku. What happened?"
"U.A.'s on lockdown."
"What?!"
Hatsume and Midoriya turned back to the TV, which was now showing Inko talking to a news reporter.
"After it was discovered that the apprentice of the infamous hero killer, Stain, was attending U.A., the police department unanimously agreed that this was a case we needed to investigate as soon as we could, and that the apprentice-NAME REDACTED-needed to be arrested."
"And why did it take you so long to perform the arrest?"
"Before we could begin a proper investigation, the principal of U.A., Nezu, came to us with a couple documents related to certain villain organizations. When asked where he got them, he kept silent, and simply asked us to wait until the sports festival finished to begin the investigation. Once we made the arrest the same day, he confessed that he got the documents from the apprentice herself."
"So, you're saying that this-NAME REDACTED-was smart enough to convince the U.A. faculty to let her participate in a public event like the sports festival?"
Inko nodded sadly. "What's more, the information on the documents had links to certain villain groups we've had trouble catching lately. So, getting that information was definitely a plus, even considering what had to be done to get it."
"Well, we're running out of time here, Detective Midoriya. Do you have any last words?"
"I just want to let you know that we're going to search every ink and croony of U.A. until we can say, for sure, that there's no risk of another insider within either the students or the staff."
"And that's it for today! Now, we'll go to the sports festival to try distract you from these shocking news-"
Midoriya snatched the control remote and turned off the TV, dropping the remote on the table as he rubbed his forehead in thought. "Did you hear what they said, Hatsume?!"
"Yeah, U.A.'s on lockdown, but the sports festival keeps going?" Hatsume shook her head. "I would put that event on lockdown too, or at least on hold-"
"The sports festival still being allowed to happen is the least of our worries," Midoriya said, scratching his chin. "Remember The Big Three? They're third years! So that means that, unless they were allowed to leave, they're going to be at the sports festival during the lockdown!"
"And their help would've been very appreciated, I assume," Hatsume took a deep breath. "Well, what do we do now? We can't go to school like this-"
*RIING! RIING!*
Midoriya reached for his pocket and took out his phone. It had a simple message from his mother, which read:
Come to U.A. right now. Bring Hatsume and Melissa with you.
"It's Mom," Midoriya sighed. "She said I should go to U.A. regardless, and to bring you and Melissa too."
"Now that you mention her, how's Melissa going to react to the news?" Hatsume asked as she got up and left the couch. "We should go see how she-"
As soon as she took a step, Hatsume wobbled to the desk, hitting her shin and causing her to fall back to the couch, shouting in pain.
"Hatsume, are you alright?!" Midoriya ran up to the pink-haired gadgeteer and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. "What happened?!"
"I don't know, I just took a step and my body just felt weird all of a sudden," Hatsume answered as she stood up with Midoriya's help. "Not only that, but I get this weird sensation on my head... And it's gone."
"What?"
"It's gone, the weird feeling, it just... vanished."
Midoriya frowned. "Now we definitely have to head to U.A., we're gonna need Recovery Girl to see what's up with you."
Midoriya helped Hatsume get dressed in her school uniform-good thing his apartment apparently had a spare-and they left the house before heading to Melissa's room next door.
As soon as Midoriya knocked the door, Melissa opened it and dragged the duo inside before slamming it shut. And judging by her All Might-themed pajamas and shocked expression, she had just found out the news.
"Guys, U.A.'s on lockdown-!"
"Yeah, we know," Hatsume sighed. "We just saw the news report."
"I'm still stunned," Melissa rubbed her forehead. "I mean, I had a feeling something like this would happen eventually, but I didn't think it'd happen today!"
"We can discuss when it should've happened later," Midoriya stated. "For now, we need to head there and figure out just what's going on."
"Yeah, Aunt Inko told me to head there and to take you two with me, did you guys-" Melissa paused upon seeing the duo's current position. "Midoriya, why are you carrying Hatsume like that?"
"Shortly after she got up, she started feeling weird, even mentioned having some ghost headache that left as quickly as it arrived," Midoriya eyed Hatsume with worry. "I'm gonna take her to Recovery Girl's office to see if she can find out if something's wrong with her."
"Alright, well, I'm gonna go get ready," Melissa said, playing with her hair as she shyly requested, "If you could just go outside and wait for a few minutes, I'll join you."
With no time to waste, the Musutafu trio entered the train to U.A. and sat down. As the train rode to the high school, Melissa folded her arms and tapped the floor repeatedly, while Midoriya focused on Hatsume, who was rubbing her head.
"How are you feeling, Hatsume?"
"A little better, but not by much," the gadgeteer sighed. "I don't know why, but I feel like I just got a lot... lighter, for some reason. As if something was taken away from me."
As if something was taken away from her? But the entire house was locked down before we went to sleep...
"Oh hey, isn't that the winner of the sports festival?"
Melissa and Midoriya flinched and turned around to see them being approached by what looked like an ordinary salaryman... except his hair was on fire. Literally.
"You were amazing back then! I'll be cheering you on next festival!"
Right, there was going to be two more sport festivals during the trio's remaining school life. However, more important than that, the man's statement seemed to have caught the attention of the other passengers.
"No way! Is she really here?!"
"Hey, she is! And she's with her boyfriend!"
"And the daughter of David Shield is here too!"
The trio grimaced as they were surrounded by passengers...
By the time the train had arrived at the station, the trio burst out with their hairs made a mess... or in Midoriya's case, made more of a mess.
"I hate being a celebrity," Hatsume growled matter-of-factly.
"Well, the good news is that if I've learned anything from my past dealings with celebrities, you'll be forgotten overnight as soon as the next big sensation comes up," Melissa said as she helped the trio stand up.
"Oh, you've arrived! Thank goodness!"
The trio turned to the source of the voice, and they saw Inko and Detective Tsukauchi approaching them. The latter was grabbing the former's hand as she rubbed her forehead with her free hand.
"Mom, what's going on? I mean, I know U.A. is on lockdown, but why did you need us to come here regardless?" Midoriya asked, walking towards the woman and crouching down once he noticed her groans. "And... do you feel well?"
"Nothing that can't be explained away due to constant work," Inko answered. "Things have been quite hectic at the police department since the arrest of Mina Ashido."
"We've been requested to put U.A. on lockdown and investigate the faculty and students thoroughly," Tsukauchi explained, getting the trio's attention. "This is done in order to make sure we find a case similar to Ashido, if there is such a case, and stop it before it can repeat her actions. And if there isn't someone like that, then we can remove the lockdown, but put U.A. under heavy supervision."
"I see... I guess as soon Mina's case was made public, the chance of there being someone else like her caused insecurity and paranoia," Midoriya clenched his fist. "Dang it, even when she's not around, she's ruining everything!"
"You can say that again, Deku."
Melissa and Hatsume turned around, and they saw Bakugou walking towards them, with Uraraka and Kirishima by his sides. "We got the news about the lockdown and I have an anger management class later this evening, so this better be good."
"Be on your best behavior, Bakugou," Uraraka told the explosive blonde. "You don't want the police to think you might be the next Mina, alright?"
"What the hell are you implying, Round Face!?"
"Guys, calm down, please don't start fighting now," Kirishima requested.
"Okay, it seems that the students are arriving," Inko turned back to her son and grabbed his hand. "The first thing we're gonna need all of you to do is head to Recovery Girl's office in order to do a health check up."
"Which is exactly what I came here for," Midoriya stood up and walked to Hatsume's side. "Let's go to her office, Hatsume."
"Right..."
Hatsume sat on a bed at the infirmary while Recovery Girl checked her clipboard for the results of the medical tests. Nearby them were Midoriya and Melissa, both looking concerned for their friend.
"Is Hatsume gonna be okay?" the trio asked in unison, causing them to look at each other in disbelief.
"Physically, there's no indication that damage has happened: her organs are fine, her temperature's average, and in general, I'd say she's perfectly fine..." Recovery Girl paused and frowned. "If it wasn't for one, troubling discovery I found."
Hatsume's eyes widened. "What is it?"
Recovery Girl grabbed one of her papers and revealed it. The paper showed an x-ray picture of Hatsume's head, right on her eyes. "As you can see, your Quirk factor is located right between your eyes, and its connected to your eyeballs."
Midoriya raised an eyebrow. "Wait, I thought having an extra pinky toe joint determined if you'd have a Quirk Factor?"
"That just determines whether the Quirk Factor will develop or not," Melissa explained, raising her index finger. "The Quirk Factor itself will appear somewhere around the body, and from there it will assimilate itself into the body to create a Quirk."
"And if the Quirk Factor itself gets damaged, so does the Quirk," Recovery Girl turned back to hatsume. "In short, it appears you have lost your Quirk."
"Lost my Quirk?" Hatsume tilted her head. "You mean, having my eyes destroyed wasn't enough for me to lose it?"
"Your eyes being destroyed simply removed your main method of activating it, however, you could theoretically gain the ability to use it again if your eyes were ever to heal back to normal," Recovery Girl explained with a solemn tone. "However, if something happens to the Quirk Factor, then the Quirk itself can be lost, if the damage is bad enough."
Hatsume lowered her head and Midoriya put a hand on her back as Mineta asked, "Is there any way to fix the damage?"
"Well, there's a way... is what I'd say if there was damage to heal," Recovery Girl scratched her chin. "You see, after checking the results, it seems Hatsume's Quirk Factor is... fine. It just seems to have lost her Quirk."
"Well, how's that even possible?" Midoriya folded his arms. "You said it yourself, doing damage to the Quirk Factor is what causes the Quirk to be lost, so how can it be fine and yet not have a Quirk?"
"Believe me, this anomaly baffles me as well, unless we consider there being a Quirk that can take other Quirks," Recovery Girl paused to think about it. "But that would only make it harder for you to sleep at night-"
"Does it exist?"
The girls raised their eyebrows at the source of the question: Midoriya, who folded his arms as he asked once more:
"Does such a thing exist? A Quirk that can take away other Quirks?"
With Recovery Girl unable-if not unwilling-to provide the answer, the Musutafu Trio headed to the next best person to ask the question: All Might. They were sitting at the couch in his office, the man in his skeletal form as he took a sip of coffee-though how he could take it when he had no stomach anymore was a mystery-and bluntly asked:
"Are you truly prepared to have your views on the world potentially changed irrevocably?"
Those words from All Might were enough to send infernal chills down the teenagers' spines. In particular, Midoriya and Hatsume were left shaken, and honestly quite hesitant to go through with the question. If what the old hero was saying was true, and he had no reason to lie so it HAD to be true, then maybe this wasn't something they should know right now.
"I... I think I'm needed at the workshop," Hatsume said, standing up and scratching her head. "Me blowing stuff up in there has become so common Power Loader might be growing worried with all the silence."
"A-And I should go join my classmates for the inspection," Midoriya said, standing up as well. "If even one of us isn't present, the police are going to get very suspicious, and I don't want them to go through with that."
Excusing themselves, Midoriya and Hatsume awkwardly left the office, leaving Melissa and All Might alone.
"And what about you, Young Melissa?" All Might asked, getting blonde inventor's attention. "Class 1-A's inspection is coming up, so you should get going too."
"I... I want to know," Melissa stated, adjusting her glasses. "If I'm going to become the next Symbol of Peace... the next Number One Hero... I need to know the dark and gritty of what I'm about to face."
All Might put his coffee on the table and took a deep breath.
"I'm not going to lie to you, Young Melissa. The things I'm about to tell you could potentially change how you see society as a whole. Everything you used to know, will change irrevocably. Nothing will be the same after this conversation, and if you think you were having second thoughts about becoming my successor before, the stuff I'll reveal to you might make you think I made a mistake, that I should've picked someone else, that you weren't cutout for this role."
All Might crossed his fingers and flashed a serious stare.
"With all this in mind, do you still want to know?"
Melissa clutched her chest, feeling a heavy sensation within it. Something told her it was her body telling her to say no and continue living in ignorance. But if she knew something, is that whatever All Might would tell her wouldn't make it go away. In fact, it might make it worse.
But she had no choice. No, it wasn't just that she had no choice, but she had a job to do now: become the next Symbol of Peace and follow on All Might's footsteps. And how was she supposed to do that if she was blissfully ignorant of society as a whole?
"Yes, Uncle Might, I want to know."
All Might's eyes widened as Melissa added, with a tone of determination:
"I need to know-"
"Could Melissa Shield please head to the Class 1-A classroom to begin the inspection?"
The ninth inheritor shot up from her seat and turned to the speaker on the wall, eyeing it with the same disdain a girl would against a guy who just opened a door while she was changing.
All Might wasn't nearly as bothered by the interruption, however. In fact, he seemed rather relieved about it.
"Guess we'll have to leave this conversation for another time, Young Melissa," the skeletal man remarked with a little smile. "Now go before the police start getting suspicious."
"B-But... t-the truth about society, about the Quirk that can take other Quirks-!"
"Learning about those won't help you in the slightest if you end up being suspected as a traitor," All Might matter-of-factly answered. "Now, please, go to the inspection."
Melissa really didn't want to go, but considering what would happen if she stayed behind, she didn't have much choice in the matter. That, and All Might didn't seem to be in a rush to tell her about this awful truth, and pushing him while he was skeletal just seemed... mean.
"Alright, Uncle Might, I'll go. But I hope you're ready to spill every bean about it when this is over."
The man nodded and sipped his coffee as Melissa left the office.
Dang it, now she really wanted answers...
